Monthly Archives: July 2012

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Asserting that “infiltration and smuggling” were intentions behind digging a 400-mt-long tunnel from Pakistan side into India in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba sector, BSF on 30JUL12 said a strong protest would be lodged with Islamabad.

The tunnel was detected on July 28 after an area caved-in in a straight line at two-three places due to rains near the border fencing near Chillayari Border Out Post (BoP) of BSF along the International Border in Samba sector.

The tunnel with a dimension of 3×3 feet is about 400 mt into Indian side from the IB, where pillars of demarcation stand. It is dug at a depth of 25 ft below the ground and also had a provision for air supply through a 2-inch pipe, Inspector General S K Mishra told reporters.

The operational cost of the Swedish Saab Gripen aircraft is the lowest among a flightline of modern fighters, confirmed a White Paper submitted by IHS Jane’s, in response to a study commissioned by Saab.

The paper says that in terms of ‘fuel used, pre-flight preparation and repair, and scheduled airfield-level maintenance together with associated personnel costs’, “The Saab Gripen is the least expensive of the aircraft under study in terms of cost per flight hour (CPFH).”

Coast Guard Station Karaikal, the fifth CG station on the Puducherry – Tamil Nadu coastline was commissioned by Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan, Director General Indian Coast Guard at Karaikal on 25JUL12.

The station is part of ongoing efforts by the Coast Guard to strengthen coastal security along the Indian coastline. The station at Karaikal will help augment patrolling along the east coast and prevent illicit activities such as infiltration, smuggling and illegal fishing.

In his address during the Commissioning Ceremony, Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan dwelt upon the need for maintaining continuous vigil along the nation`s coastal and maritime borders. He called for continued synergy and coordination between various agencies involved in coastal and maritime security. He further stated that the Coast Guard had initiated several far-reaching projects to augment force levels as also manpower to meet existing and future maritime challenges.

Coast Guard Station Karaikal will function under the administrative and operational control of the Commander Coast Guard Region (East) through the Commander Coast Guard District Headquarter- 5 located at Chennai. Commandant PR Lochen has been appointed as the Commanding Officer of the station.

I am deeply moved by the high honour you have accorded to me. Such honour exalts the occupant of this office, even as it demands that he rises above personal or partisan interests in the service of the national good.

The principal responsibility of this office is to function as the guardian of our Constitution. I will strive, as I said on oath, to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution not just in word but also in spirit. We are all, across the divide of party and region, partners at the altar of our motherland. Our federal Constitution embodies the idea of modern India: it defines not only India but also modernity. A modern nation is built on some basic fundamentals: democracy, or equal rights for every citizen; secularism, or equal freedom to every faith; equality of every region and language; gender equality and, perhaps most important of all, economic equity. For our development to be real the poorest of our land must feel that they are part of the narrative of rising India.

I have seen vast, perhaps unbelievable, changes during the journey that has brought me from the flicker of a lamp in a small Bengal village to the chandeliers of Delhi. I was a boy when Bengal was savaged by a famine that killed millions; the misery and sorrow is still not lost on me. We have achieved much in the field of agriculture, industry and social infrastructure; but that is nothing compared to what India, led by the coming generations, will create in the decades ahead.

Our national mission must continue to be what it was when the generation of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar and MaulanaAzad offered us a tryst with destiny: to eliminate the curse of poverty, and create such opportunities for the young that they can take our India forward by quantum leaps. There is no humiliation more abusive than hunger. Trickle-down theories do not address the legitimate aspirations of the poor. We must lift those at the bottom so that poverty is erased from the dictionary of modern India.

Addressing the Members of Consultative Committee attached to the Home Ministry, on 24JUL12 Sh. P. Chidambaram, Union Home Minister informed that border area management is possible only when economic and infrastructural development takes place in the border areas.

Referring to the Border Area Development Programme (BADP), the Minister informed the members that Rs. 990 crore has been allocated for BADP for the year 2012-13 which is Rs. 90 crore more than the last year’s allocation. The BADP covers 358 blocks of 96 border districts of 17 States located along the international Land Border. The programme is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme. Funds are provided to the states as a non-lapsable special central assistance for execution of projects relating to infrastructure, livelihood, education, health, agriculture and allied sector. Funds are released to the States in two installments i.e. first installment of 90% and second of 10% amount of the allocation.

Sh. Chidambaram informed the Committee that in pursuance of Group of Ministers’ Recommendation to reduce inter-Border Out Post (BOP) distance to 3.5 KM, the Government has approved construction of additional 509 BOPs -383 on Indo Bangladesh Border and 126 on Indo-Pakistan Border.